Visual Basic for Applications or VBA is a development environment built into the Microsoft Office_ã Suite of products.

VBA is an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) language. It works by manipulating objects.  In Microsoftä Office^â  the programs are objects. 

In Access worksheets, tables, forms, reports and queries are also objects.

In VBA the object is written first

I’m fixing house number 42 = .House.42.Fix

          House 42      Fix

English          .noun  .noun  .verb

VBA    .object .child object  .meth

When working in VBA tell Access exactly what to do.  Don’t assume anything.

If the Visual Basic Help files are installed, by pressing F1, a help screen displays explaining the feature that is currently active:

Alternatively use the Ask a Question box on the menu bar to as a quick way to find help on a topic.

To close the Visual Basic Editor use one of the following:

Procedure is a term that refers to a unit of code created to perform a specific task.  In Access, procedures are stored in objects called Modules.

Standard modules can be used to store procedures that are available to all objects in your application

Within a project you can create as many standard modules as required.  You should store related procedures together within the same module.

Standard modules are also used to declare global variables and constants.

To create a standard module in the VB Editor:

·       Display the Properties window if necessary

·       In the Properties window change the name of the module

A procedure is a named set of instructions that does something within the application.

To execute the code in a procedure you refer to it by name from within another procedure.  This is known as Calling a procedure.  When a procedure has finished executing it returns control to the procedure from which it was called.

There are two genera types of procedures:

If you require 10 stages to solve a problem write 10 sub procedures.  It is easier to find errors in smaller procedures than in a large one.

The procedures can then be called, in order, from another procedure.

There are rules and conventions that must be followed when naming procedures in Visual Basic.

While rules must be followed or an error will result, conventions are there as a guideline to make your code easier to follow and understand.

The following rules must be adhered to when naming procedures:

You should consider these naming conventions when naming procedures:

Most Access tasks can be automated by creating procedures.  This can be done by either recording a macro or entering the code directly into the VB Editor’s Code window.

Sub procedures have the following syntax:

Public indicates procedure can be called from within other modules.  It is the default setting

Private indicates the procedure is only available to other procedures in the same module.

The Sub…End Sub structure can be typed directly into the code window or inserted using the Add Procedure dialog box.

To create a sub procedure:

·       Create or display the module to contain the new sub procedure

·       Click in the Code window

·       Type in the Sub procedure using the relevant syntax

Type in the word Sub, followed by a space and the Procedure name

Press Enter and VB inserts the parenthesis after the name and the End Sub line.

Below is an example of a basic sub procedure: